News Bits: Jem, Happy-ish, Knuckles, Mass

Jem and the HologramsUniversal is giving “Jem and the Holograms” fans a chance to appear in the upcoming teen-musical fantasy. Winners of this digital casting call will be selected based on “Jem”-inspired videos posted on social channels like YouTube.

The ‘Star in Jem’ contest is inviting anyone to post multiple videos of themselves singing or dancing to one of the songs from the movie (after downloading music from the site). For actors, the studio is looking for testimonials addressed to the fictional Jem about “how she has given you courage to be yourself.” [Source: Variety]

Happy-ishShowtime has canceled its freshman dark comedy “Happyish” after one season. Steve Coogan replaced the late Philip Seymour Hoffman who was originally slated to star.

The series launched this spring to just 430,000 total viewers and mixed reviews, and it failed to pick up an Emmy nomination. [Source: The Live Feed]

White Knuckles“Attenberg” and “Chevalier” helmer Athina Rachel Tsangari is set to direct a screwball action thriller called “White Knuckles”. Ariane Labed is tipped to star.

Partly set in New York, it follows two sisters-in-crime – a burglar and a bookkeeper – who “deal with VAT fraud, amour fou, architectural infiltration, and electrically amplified fist fighting.” [Source: LWL]

Black MassScott Cooper’s “Black Mass,” the Johnny Depp-starring biopic of notorious gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, will get its world premiere out of competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The film will screen September 4th at the fest ahead of a worldwide release kicking off two weeks later. Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemons, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard and Kevin Bacon also star. [Source: Deadline]